Louisiana had the highest murder rate per capita among all states in the country last year, a streak the state has maintained every year since 1989, according to new data released by the Federal Bureau of Investigation this week.
The Times-Picayune reports that the state’s high murder rate figured as one of several metrics in data that showed murders throughout the U.S. jumped by 10.8 percent from 2014 to 2015 — the largest percentage increase since 1971.
Calculated as murders per 100,000 people, the FBI’s murder rate marks a key metric in the agency’s 2015 Uniform Crime Report, released on Monday. Aside from murders, the annual report also compiles data for other violent crimes — rapes, robberies and aggravated assaults — property crimes, weapons types, victim profiles and demographic analysis. The report categorizes data according to national, state and local jurisdictions.
Read the T-P story here.